


in this inescapable gravity

by foxiea



Series: there's a black hole on our horizon [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, First Meetings, Gen, Male-Female Friendship, Pining Keith (Voltron), Pre-Kerberos Mission
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-25
Updated: 2018-01-25
Packaged: 2019-03-09 11:41:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 547
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13480752
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/foxiea/pseuds/foxiea
Summary: “Keith,” Matt says, ferrying over a disgruntled-looking boy in a Garrison cadet uniform, “This is my sister.  Katie, this is Keith.”Matt’s voice is quiet when he bends down to whisper in her ear.  “Help keep them in touch, yeah?  He doesn’t have anyone else.”





	in this inescapable gravity

“Keith,” Matt says, ferrying over a disgruntled-looking boy in a Garrison cadet uniform, “This is my sister.  Katie, this is Keith.”

Keith’s face relaxes from his slight frown as he gives her a once-over, but his lips stay drawn in a tight line, even when Katie offers him a shy smile.  She may not be the best at meeting new people, but her parents certainly raised her to be polite.

Keith’s eyes flicker to Matt, and his mouth opens, a question half-formed, when a voice calls his name and the words die on his lips.  Keith turns, and Katie watches the pull of his lips as they curve upwards, the crease at the corner of his eye as his gaze softens.  He’s looking at Takashi Shirogane, and _Oh,_ Katie thinks, _that’s what being in love looks like._

Matt’s voice is quiet when he bends down to whisper in her ear.  “Help keep them in touch, yeah?”  And Katie just nods, not bothering to think about the logistics of it, because Matt adds in a voice even quieter, “He doesn’t have anyone else,” and though she doesn’t know which one of them he means, she supposes that it doesn’t really matter.

 

“You can call me Pidge,” Katie says, when the shuttle has disappeared far into the sky.  Keith nods in response, and that’s enough.

 

* * *

 

“I don’t know what to say,” Keith admits, eyes cast towards the stars, and Katie wonders if he’s trying to track the shuttle’s progress through the constellations.

“Tell him you love him?” She suggests, and Keith’s gaze immediately shifts to her, deer-eyed.  When she quirks her eyebrows at him, he looks down at his hands.

“He doesn’t know,” Keith says, in a voice so low she barely hears it.

Tentatively, she places a hand on top of his.  He flinches, but doesn’t pull away from the contact.  “He’d want to,” she says.

 

* * *

  
Katie gets the news when she comes home from school to find a Garrison officer at the kitchen table with her mother, two long-cold cups of tea sitting between them.

 

Pilot error.

 

If the words squeeze her heart in a vice, she can only imagine what they do to Keith.  Later, when they watch the news report, she wonders if they told him in person, or if it was the tv that broke the news to him.

She never finds out.  Keith doesn’t visit again.

 

* * *

 

“Katie, please,” her mother asks, two fingers pressed to the bridge of her nose.  “I need you to stop.”  She is exhausted, drowning in grief for her husband and son, and her daughter has just been banned indefinitely from the Garrison for unauthorised computer access.

 

Katie can’t stop.

The Garrison holds the answers.  She’s sure of it, sure she can find them, can uncover the truth of what happened to the Kerberos crew.  If she tells him, Keith will help her.  She’ll have an ally, a partner.

That night she transforms into Pidge, and disappears.  The next morning, she’s enrolled in the Garrison.

 

“You got lucky, cadet,” an admissions officer tells her as he finalises her paperwork.  “Spot only opened up because another student dropped out.”

Pidge spies the name on the file the officer discards into his wastepaper basket, and feels her heart drop.   _Kogane, Keith._  

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on [tumblr](http://foxieafic.tumblr.com/)


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